Large data will "unlock" business value

Typical businesses are being surrounded by overwhelming data. Whether from health care, financial services, or retail, manufacturing, almost every industry, every day witnessed the rapid growth of data volumes, the ability to foresee large data has begun to emerge.

What lurks in these growing large data repositories is a huge gold mine for businesses, opportunities and potential successes. However, it is still a daunting task to analyze and make useful information available in all data, including legacy data and unstructured data, generated from content such as social media and video.

"In most cases, business data can go back 30 years or even further, and they need to respond aggressively to large multimedia data," said Gary Curtis, chief technical strategist and managing director at Essen. "Synthesizing all data for analysis to understand the market is a big challenge in the big data age." At present, a small number of enterprises have begun to use the potential data for market analysis.

It should be recognized that this is a huge challenge. A survey by the Executive Board of the research and consulting firm (CEB) shows that in some multinational companies, analytics and insights are priorities, though rarely implemented on important issues.

In fact, according to CEB's research, only 38% of enterprise employees and 50% of senior managers in all enterprises have the ability to make good decisions through data analysis. As CEB said, to make good decisions, employees need to have a quality that becomes a qualified "informed skeptic". The correct decision can only be made if the effective balance between the two is judged and analyzed. These good decision-makers tend to have the ability to analyze and listen to the results of others ' analysis, but at the same time have a skeptical attitude toward others ' conclusions.

In today's data-driven environment, it is imperative to work out a clear strategy and a workable solution to manage large data. "It is inevitable that you need to be exposed to every industry area," says Kalyan Viswanathan, director of global consulting practice information management and Tata Consulting services. "Big data is changing business and creating new risks and opportunities." Some smart companies are looking for ways to make him more effective in serving his work. ”

Data management in the new era

Since the advent of machine algorithms, enterprises have been looking for ways to manage and utilize the growing volume of data. Large data that covers a larger amount of data and more contact points is at the center of this trend. According to McKinsey, a consultancy, the data storage capacity of a large enterprise in a nearby location may have reached terabytes.

It is not easy for an enterprise to have to deal with rapidly growing unstructured data and integrate it into a regular repository or database. In the past few years, "the extremely enlarged data types have become a part of enterprise data resources," says Accenture's Curtis.

Large data can release business value, it makes data more transparent, and in some cases can create value. Through richer and more extensive data, data analysis can play a strong reference value, according to the precise market division, the company can develop more targeted marketing activities and sales practices. Data analysis helps companies understand the linkages between different markets to discover new products and services that prevent opportunities from slipping away. Companies have used analytical techniques to create competitive advantages in the marketplace or industry and to open up new business opportunities. It is worth noting that the use of analytical technology companies continue to exceed the likelihood of peer twice times higher.

However, the processing of large data is not simply to put the system in a suitable location, and then automatically obtain results. Combining the right technologies and tools is essential, as well as establishing the right work processes and policies, finding people who can use data analysis to predict the market, and building more effective products and services to meet rapidly changing market demands.

"It requires a lot of investment in data warehousing, data integration, business intelligence, data visualization tools, Business Analytics, and predictive modeling," says Viswanathan of Tata Consulting. The rapid growth of large data and the development of related technologies are bringing new business opportunities.

(Responsible editor: Duqing first)